Chapter I

"Azrael! Azrael!" a voice called through the silence of the streets, and Homiko Azrael turned on the spot, turning towards her friends that approached her. One woman had short brown hair, the other had long red hair. They approached the girl, and smiled when they saw her smiling back at them. It was a rare moment when the girl actually smiled.

"Hey, Angel, Romia," Azrael spoke to them kindly. The girl stared at each other for just a moment, and then the red head, Romia, spoke.

"Where have you been, Azrael? You totally missed class today!" she exclaimed to her.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Romia, I've just had a lot on my mind lately," the girl told her.

"Like what?" Angel asked, but Azrael didn't answer. She preferred not to share her intimate thoughts with anyone, including her good friends.

"Oh, you mean like him, huh? Yeah, you never seem to focus with him on your mind," Romia cried.

"Like who?" Azrael questioned the girls, but they apparently knew who it was before she did. "Who are you talking about?"

"You know who. You told us that you've been having dreams of a boy, and we know which boy that is! Your dream boy!" Angel told them.

"Um…how can I be so focused about someone when I don't even know who they are?" Azrael asked her friends, and this caused confusion to strike up amongst the three of them.

"Who're you talking about?! We're talking about Preston Alec!" Romia cried out. Azrael for a moment just looked confused, but then reality hit her, and she only grinned at this.

"I'm not into Alec. He's a great guy and all, but I'm just not interested in him," she told her friends.

"But it's so obvious he's into you! I mean, he's always watching and looking at you! If he only had the guts, he'd ask you out! What about it? Would you go out with him if he asked you?" Angel asked. Azrael looked at her friends. Alec was a nice guy, a year younger than her and her friends, but he was taller than all three of them, had light blond hair, piercing blue eyes, and was so nice, he made a sweet kitten stuck in a tree look like Attila the Hun, however wrong that statement might be.

"I don't know. I don't think I would, because I just…I don't feel anything for him. He's a great guy, but I don't think it would work out between us," she told her friends.

"But you two just look so cute together!"

"But I said no. I won't go out with him, because I don't feel anything for him. Now, can we please drop the topic?" Azrael was starting to get annoyed by her friends' pestering. After a while of calm, hesitant silence, Azrael spoke up to them. "Was the professor mad that I was absent?"

"Oh, yeah. He thinks you're ditching, because you haven't come to class at all this week, and you don't seem to have an excuse for it. He says that if you don't show up tomorrow, he'll kick you out of the class," Romia explained to her. "So, you better show up tomorrow!"

"I will, I will. Don't worry," Azrael waved goodbye to her friends, and turned on her heel to walk back down the street. Her friends continued to watch her, and as soon as they knew she was out of earshot, Angel turned to Romia.

"How come she never invites us over?" she asked. "I mean, I practically know everything about her, but I've never seen her house or met her family."

"Then you obviously don't know everything about her," Romia spoke.

"What's that supposed to mean?!"

"Never mind."

The gray skies seemed to cause a somewhat gloomy and depressing aura to form in the building of Kaiba Corporation, forcing all the employees and employers to become somewhat exhausted and anxious to leave. Even the CEO of the company, Kaiba Seto himself, was growing weary and tired by the day's weather. Gloomy, dark, it was the perfect day to just go home and relax in front of a fire place. But he had a company to run, so he couldn't just leave for the day and have his employees do all the work. It wouldn't be right, and it also wouldn't exactly be the best example, either. If he left early for the day, then his employees might get the idea that they could, too, and he didn't want a habit to form in the working area. However, he turned in his chair, away from his computer, and stared out into the dark sky, watching the dark clouds to thicken and spread even further. Rain was lightly drizzling from the sky, falling so lightly and softly against the glass of the windows, it didn't stay for long, and just seemed to be small beads of tears against the building. Why did the rain interest him so much?

"When it rains, it's like God's crying…."

"Yeah…" Kaiba didn't even know what he was responding to. Was it a dream? A memory of long ago? He didn't know, but he remembered hearing those words from somewhere. At that moment, though, the door to his office opened, and in stepped a small boy with long, wild dark hair, and large dark eyes that stared up at the man with an expression of pure delight.

"Hey, Seto, let's go home, alright? I'm getting tired, and I'm about ready to pass out. I think it's the weather," the boy told him. Kaiba Mokuba, Kaiba's younger brother.

"Not just yet, Mokuba. I have to get stuff done here. But I know what you mean. It's been like that for the past day or so…" Kaiba told his younger brother.

"Yeah, well, it's been getting cold lately. Fall is on its way, and after that is Winter," Mokuba spoke out, but it was pretty obvious what he was saying. It has been getting cold lately, very cold, and the rain was only making things more depressing and sorrowful. Kaiba looked out the window one more time.

Kaiba faintly remembered his days from high school, the days when running a company were important, but not as important as they were now. It had been a while since he had graduated, and it had been so long since he had touched the deck he would cling to every so often. The deck that allowed him to duel and fight against certain people in order to either keep or regain his title. Lately, he couldn't even remember the last time he had dueled against someone. His memories were nothing but a blur, fogged images of a time long ago that only seemed so far away. However, one thing kept popping into his mind, before his mind's eye.

"Sometimes I wish I could be like the clouds above…floating forever on a single current, not knowing where I would go, and not really caring at all….Not have a care in the world…."

"Seto?" Mokuba's voice broke through the man's thoughts, and Kaiba turned to see his little brother standing before his desk, watching him with eyes of concern.

"I'm alright, Mokuba. Just a little tired," he told him, and Mokuba smiled cheerfully. "Tell you what, in about an hour, we'll leave, okay?"

Mokuba nodded, and with that, he turned on his heel and walked out the room, leaving Kaiba alone in his office. Kaiba turned back to the window, and stared out at the dark sky. He wished somehow to forget these dreams of his, to forget these nightmares or memories that he could just barely remember, yet still they lay forgotten deep inside him. He wished he could forget it all, but he couldn't. As long as he lived, he was bound to those memories he wish he never had.

Why? Why am I remembering her now?

"Ah!"

Bakura Ryo fell against the sink of the bathroom, his body trembling with pain and agony, his fingers clutching tightly to the marble rim of the sink. His body gave a horrible jerk, and he collapsed forward into the depth of the bowl, his stomach churning and twisting within him. The pain that engulfed him was like a burning flame taking control of his veins and mind. He felt as if his body would split down the middle, his mind splitting at the core, and separating into two entities. Within him, a voice was echoing darkly and demonically, as if he, himself, was possessed by an ancient spirit, a pure essence of evil.

"So, the Millennium Ring is sensing another spirit nearby. This spirit…it's different from the others, different from the spirit of the Pharaoh, and even that of others….This spirit is filled with so much darkness and hate, it's unbelievable it resides within a human body…."

"What's—happening…to me?!" Ryo cried out, clutching his shoulders, as if to keep his body together. The voice within wasn't really speaking to him, but more to itself, confiding in itself, talking and conversing with itself. But its words…he didn't understand what this voice inside him meant.

"How interesting. The Items cannot only detect each other, but also detect ancient spirits. How interesting, but at the same time, how strange. I must figure out who this spirit is, what makes it so powerful, and I must acquire that power…."

Ryo screamed loudly, collapsing against the sink, and he felt a horrible wave overcome him. Immediately, he turned away from the sink and bolted into the stall, hunching over the toilet, and vomited into it. The pain that engulfed his mind was far too great, he couldn't even get up. His mind was in excruciating agony, it affected his entire body, forcing him to vomit once more, and then he fell against the wall of the stall, his breathing shallow and unsteady. He knew…he somehow knew that the voice within him…the spirit within him was planning to kill someone. But why? And who?!

For so long Ryo had been haunted by the spirit of a great and evil being within a mystical item known as the Millennium Ring, and this spirit…this spirit was so powerful, so dark and filled with hate, Ryo himself could not control it. He ended up being the one that was controlled, controlled so heavily by this evil spirit. In fact, this spirit was no longer known as a spirit, but as evil and dark it was, it became a demon. A dark and powerful demon deep inside him that originally resided within the Item, and then took refuge in his body. Was it too much to bear? Probably, but he couldn't control the pain or the force the demon took on him and his body. It was all too much for him, and he couldn't resist. He wasn't strong enough.

"So strange, yet so convenient. I've been searching for this power for so long now. A power that far surpasses that of the seven Holy Millennium Items, and none the less far greater than the power of the Pharaoh. I must find this spirit, search it out, and leech out its power…."

"No! I won't let you!" Ryo screamed to the voice within him, but his screams echoed off the walls of the bathroom, and the pain increased once more, forcing himself to hunch back over the bowl, but he didn't retch this time. Instead, he fought it back, and pushed himself back up against the wall of the stall, unable to move anymore.

"I'm afraid you don't have a choice. I need this power, and in order to acquire this power, and to find this spirit, I need your body. Nothing personal, my host, but it's just standard procedure. I need it, and you're the one meant to give it to me…."

Ryo let out an echoing scream, a scream that pierced through the walls of the bathroom, echoing off the tiles, the bowls, the mirrors, and shattered them to small shards of glass which fell to the floor like shattered pieces of memories, falling helplessly to the ground where they would forever lay. Ryo let out a last sigh before he fell completely against the floor, a small trickle of blood forming at the corner of his mouth. His eyes laid closed, his body pale and motionless, and he laid there for only a short, brief moment before his fingers began to twitch, and his eyes slowly started to open. His eyes were colder, though, dark, and empty, soulless. They stared above at the roof above with a dark glare of desire, and his hair lifted only slightly from his forehead. He sat up, supporting himself on one knee, and then with his arm. He then walked out of the stall, and towards the one mirror that stool stood, if not shattered slightly. Through the shattered glass the boy could see his broken reflection, and grinned at himself.

"Don't think of this too badly, Ryo. You and I have some big plans. If I can find this spirit, and acquire its power, you and I will no longer share the same body," the boy spoke, but it wasn't his own voice. It was another, the voice that lingered inside him, the voice that had always existed, deep, dark, and malevolent. He brushed himself off and fixed his clothing, staring at himself long and hard.

Unlike most of the ancient spirits that existed in the present time, this spirit, Bakura, as he has been preferred to be called, remember almost everything perfectly and clearly. The memories that he held, though, were not pleasant ones that one would wish to remember, nor were they endearing ones that one would find motivating and influential. No, these memories that this spirit held were dark, sinister, and deadly memories that only seemed to go on into an eternally dark abyss. Let it be known that only one with a dark soul can only have truly dark and fearful memories.